NY Renews Coalition Responds to the Sustainable Future Program Announcement
***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***: September 24, 2025
Contacts: Stephan Edel, stephan@nyrenews.org, (646) 644-1845
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In response to the release of the Sustainable Future Program, NY Renews Executive Director Stephan Edel issued the following statement:
For years, NY Renews members have called for a significant on-budget investment in climate and environmental justice, so Governor Hochul’s announcement of the $1 billion Sustainable Future Program comes as welcome news. Today, when so many New Yorkers can’t pay their energy bills, rent, or medical and grocery bills, the restoration of some Empower+ funding will help pay for energy-efficiency upgrades for thousands of low- and moderate-income households in New York. We’re pleased to see money going toward reducing building emissions, building out thermal energy networks, electric school buses, and more. We expect that, per the Climate Law and the budget legislation that created the Sustainable Future Program, at least 40% of funds will go to Disadvantaged Communities and will reduce greenhouse gas and co-pollutant emissions in these neighborhoods. The Sustainable Future Program is an opportunity to model transparent and accountable implementation of the Climate Law’s equity mandates.
But, to truly support New Yorkers, Governor Hochul must embrace a bold approach to raising climate revenue and implementing New York’s Climate Law. Hochul’s administration has largely stalled New York’s climate justice progress by indefinitely pausing the rollout of Cap and Invest, greenlighting expensive nuclear energy plans, approving toxic fossil fuel pipelines that threaten New York’s water, air, and lands, and putting corporate utility profits ahead of the needs of our households and small businesses.
Governor Hochul must release the regulations for Cap and Invest today so we can get the program up and running in 2026. And, to ensure that money starts flowing to our neighborhoods in the meantime, NY Renews is calling for at least another $1 billion Sustainable Future Program investment in next year’s state budget to account for the money we could have raised if Cap and Invest were already in place—as it should be, both morally and legally. These funds can and should be directed to NY’s Climate Action Fund to prepare for when, not if, New York launches Cap and Invest.
New Yorkers are facing the twin burdens of extreme weather and extreme costs. Governor Hochul has the power to address both by releasing Cap and Invest, which will make corporate polluters pay, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce monthly energy bills for households across New York State. Research shows that, done right, the cap-and-invest program could help households making up to $200K save money and raise billions in annual revenue for climate resiliency and adaptation from Buffalo to the Bronx.
Member organization quotes:
“From large-scale thermal energy networks to zero emission school buses, the $1 billion Sustainable Futures Program is funding the exact type of things we need to minimize the financial and health impacts of the climate crisis on New Yorkers,” said Conor Bambrick, Senior Climate Advisor, NYC Environmental Justice Alliance. “But this $1 billion is not enough and is a drop in the bucket compared to the revenue New York State would see from a cap and invest program done right. The state’s own numbers showed that a cap and invest program would have brought between $3 to $5 billion in revenue in 2025 alone. The money would come from corporate polluters and could go to lowering New Yorkers’ monthly energy bills during a time of rate hikes. If the Governor is serious about affordability, she will release the cap and invest regulations, bringing forth billions of dollars yearly that would be sent to New York households as costs continue to rise from business as usual.”
“Yesterday, while the President of the United States talked about the “climate hoax”, leaders within the United Nations and leading climate scientists called for massively fast-tracking climate action on all fronts if there is to be any hope of averting critical tipping points in the climate system. Yet since the release of the Climate Action Council scoping plan nearly three years ago, the State has passed only three major climate bills. This year, not even one climate bill was passed by the NYS Assembly. A one-billion-dollar investment in the Sustainable Future Program may seem significant, but it is grossly insufficient for addressing the full scope of an existential climate crisis. The scale of the global climate and biodiversity crisis demands investment in the trillions of dollars, not billions. This incrementalism in funding and implementing our landmark Climate Act only brings us closer to those catastrophic tipping points. We have all the knowledge and tools to transition the state economy from fossil fuels to renewables - what is missing is political courage and political will,” said Michael Richardson, Third Act Upstate New York.
“The $1 billion Sustainable Futures Program is a welcome respite in an atmosphere of federal hostility to all climate and equity initiatives, and state hesitancy toward full implementation of our Climate Law,” said Caroline Chen, Director of Environmental Justice at the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. “These funds may address badly-needed upgrades and transition costs toward New York’s renewable energy future, but more is needed. The State must comply with the law and release regulations to meet our Climate Law’s greenhouse gas reduction targets, anything short of that is a gesture and excuse for delay.”
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NY Renews is a coalition of nearly 400 environmental justice, labor, and community groups, and the force behind the nation’s most powerful climate law, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. We fight for good jobs and climate justice for New Yorkers statewide.